Ladder assembly for a boat

ABSTRACT

A stowable ladder assembly adapted to be positioned at a ladder stowing region of a boat. There is a main ladder section having an upper ladder pivot connecting location which connects to a rear pivot location of a connecting section that has a forward pivot connection to an upper surface of a platform. In the operating position, the upper pivot connection of the ladder is at an upper location and the ladder extends downwardly into the water. Then in the stowed position, the ladder is positioned on the upper stowage surface and the connecting section has been rotated upwardly and forwardly to the stowed position.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority benefit of U.S. Ser. No. 60/943,506, filed Jun. 12, 2008.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

a) Field of the Disclosure

The present invention relates to ladders which are used on boats, and more particularly to a type of ladder which extends downwardly into the water so that a swimmer, snorkel diver, water skier, etc., can climb out of the water and into the boat.

b) Background Art

When a ladder extends downwardly from the boat into the water in its operating position, it obviously becomes necessary to move the ladder out of the water when the boat is ready to begin traveling at a moderate speed, and then stow it conveniently on the boat.

In providing the type of ladder discussed immediately above it is obviously desirable to minimize the possibility of injury to a person who is using the ladder or moving about in the vicinity of the ladder. For example, when the person is maneuvering around the ladder to become positioned to climb up the ladder, he could possibly bump into protrusions that are not part of the basic structure of the ladder.

Also if the boat is moving in close proximity to a dock or other stationary or moving structure, the protrusion could come into contact with the structure to cause damage to the protrusion on the ladder and/or its associated structure or to the structure that it engages.

In addition to these concerns discussed above, the stowing of ladders on the boat, the removing of the ladder from the water and the placing of the ladder back in the water should be able to be done conveniently. Then there are the concerns of being “user friendly” in all aspects of use and storage of ladders, and also concerns of reliability, durability, sound construction, minimizing excess cost of repair, etc.

It is toward these considerations of goals and potential problems that the embodiments of the present invention are directed.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

There is a stowable ladder assembly adapted to be positioned at a ladder stowing region of a boat or the like. There is a main ladder section with an upper ladder pivot connecting location. The ladder section has an operating position where the ladder is extending downwardly from an upper ladder pivot connecting location. An interconnecting section has a first pivot connection to the upper-end portion of the ladder, and a second pivot location where it connects to an upper surface where there is a ladder stowage region. Then the ladder can be moved to a stowage position where the ladder and the interconnecting section are moved upwardly and forwardly so that these are positioned on the stowage region.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a side-elevational view of the ladder assembly of the present invention in its extended operating position;

FIG. 2 is a rear-elevational view of the assembly as shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 1, but showing the telescoping sections of the ladder in their stowed configuration;

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 3 showing the ladder in its collapsed position moved upwardly to a horizontal position;

FIG. 5 is a view similar to FIGS. 3 and 4, but showing the ladder rotating another 180° to its stowed position on the platform;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged view partly in section, showing the upper-end of center support section of the ladder engaging a stop member in its deployed position;

FIG. 7 is a view similar to FIG. 6, but showing the ladder in its raised position where it also engages the stop member in the position of FIG. 4;

FIG. 8 is a side-elevational view of a second embodiment of the present invention, in its operating position;

FIG. 9 is a top-plan view of the embodiment as shown in FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is a side-elevational view of the ladder assembly as shown in FIG. 9, showing the ladder being raised to a more horizontal location;

FIG. 11 is a semi-schematic drawing of a linking component of the interconnecting section;

FIG. 12 is a side-elevational view of the linking component in a rearwardly extending configuration;

FIG. 13 is an isometric view of the interconnecting section 90 and also the upper-end portion of the ladder in operating position;

FIG. 14A is a semi-schematic side-elevational view FIG. 13;

FIG. 14B is a view similar to 14A but illustrating the ladder having been rotated 90° to an upwardly and moderately forwardly orientation; and

FIGS. 15A through 15F are six sequential drawings showing the ladder from its operating position, and being moved as shown in FIGS. 15B through 15E to finally be at the stowed location in FIG. 15F.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

To describe the ladder assembly 11 of the present invention, reference is first made to FIGS. 1 through 4 which show only schematically the rear portion of a boat. More specifically, there is shown the boat's transom 12 schematically in the form of a single upwardly and slightly rearwardly slanting rear surface of the transom 12. The boat also has a horizontal platform 14 which extends rearwardly from the transom 12. The platform 14 has a forward end portion 16 by which it is rigidly connected to the transom 12, and a rear end portion 18.

The platform 14 has an upwardly facing surface 20 which functions as a stowage region. The rear edge portion of the platform 14 has a rearwardly facing rear edge surface 22.

There is a ladder 26, which in combination with the platform 14, forms the aforementioned ladder assembly 11. This ladder 26 comprises a main support member 28 which in turn comprises three or more or less telescoping sections 30.

The terms “upper” and “lower” relative to identifying end portions of the main support member 28 will be interpreted relative to its position in FIG. 3.

There is connected to the bottom end portion of each telescoping section 30 a rung member 32, which in this embodiment extends in opposite directions laterally from its related telescoping section 30. The ladder 22 has a lower end portion 34 and an upper connecting end portion 36. The ladder 22 has an alignment axis 31 which extends along the length of the ladder section 26.

Also, as shown in FIG. 1, there is an interconnecting section 40 which has a forward connecting end portion 42 and a rear connecting end portion 44 (see FIG. 6). Then there is a linking component 46 which has opposite end portions to connect pivotally at its front and its rear end connecting portions 42 and 44, respectively. The linking component 46 has front and rear pivot connecting locations 48 and 49 which are at the location of the front and rear pivot pins at the locations 48 and 49.

At the forward end of the interconnecting section 40, there is a platform connection 50 (see FIG. 1) which in this arrangement is shown as comprising two right angle vertically extending connecting members 52, each of which has a lower horizontally aligned base plate section 54. These connecting members 52 engage the front end portion 42 of the connecting component 46 by means of the aforementioned forward pivot pins 48 and 49 which are transversely aligned and thus restrain the ladder 26 and the interconnecting section to rotation about transverse axes of rotation. The two horizontal connecting members 52, as the name implies, connect to a base plate 54 which in turn connects to the platform 14.

The linking component 46 can be made as a single elongate member (made of steel or some other suitable material) or as a pair of side-by-side members which are fixed relative to one another by engagement with the related pivot pins 48 or 49. These pins 48 and 49 are aligned in an alignment axis 59 that is substantially parallel with the surface 20 of the platform 14, in both the positions of FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, and the interconnecting section 40 and also closely adjacent to the surface 20 of the platform 20.

To describe the operation of this first embodiment, reference will now be made to FIGS. 1, 3, 4 and 5 which show in sequence the movement of the ladder assembly from its fully deployed position in FIG. 1 to its stowed position of FIG. 5.

With reference first to FIG. 1, it can be seen that the ladder 26 is fully extended with a downward and moderately rearward slant. Also, it can be seen that the linking component 46 is positioned horizontally and bears against the base plate 54 to which it is connected. Normally, the platform 14 is located so as to be fairly close to the water surface when the boat is either stationary or moving at a relatively low speed. Accordingly, a fair portion of the ladder 26 extends below the water.

To move the ladder 26 toward its stowed position, as shown in FIG. 3, the first step is to move the telescoping sections 30 upwardly to their stowed position.

Then the ladder 26 is swung upwardly to a horizontal position, as shown in FIG. 4, and in this position the linking component 46 remains horizontally aligned with the ladder 26 also being horizontally aligned and in alignment with the linking component 46. Then the next step is to swing the ladder 26 upwardly and forwardly through 180° of travel so that it pivots at the forward pivot connection at the forward pin 48 so that it moves through 180° of travel to its stowed position of FIG. 5.

It will be noted that in the positions of FIGS. 1 and 3, and also in FIG. 5, the interconnecting section 40 has what could be termed a “low profile” with a minimum of outwardly projecting parts. More specifically, in FIG. 1 the rear pivot connection 49 is aligned with the ladder main support member 28 and also is raised only a short distance above the upper surface 20 of the platform 14. Then, when the ladder assembly 11 is in its fully stowed position, the linking component 46 and the associated apparatus also have a low prior profile and do not project upwardly to any great extent.

With the basic operation of the assembly now being covered in the above text, let us now proceed further and discuss another facet of this first embodiment, which is a stop and positioning mechanism between the linking component 46 and the ladder 26. More specifically, when the ladder 26 has reached the position of FIG. 4, there is a stop mechanism 56 which acts to prevent any further upward rotation of the ladder main support member 28 relative to the linking component 46. This accounts for the fact that when the ladder 26 is traveling from the rearwardly extending location of FIG. 4 to the forwardly extending configuration of FIG. 5, for all practical purposes the main support member 28 of the ladder 26 is locked into alignment with the linking component 46.

Likewise, it will be noted that the in both FIG. 1 and FIG. 3, the ladder 26 has a downward and rearward slant. This is also due to the stop mechanism feature that stops the ladder 26 from dropping down to a completely horizontal position with no rearward slant.

This will now be explained with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7. It can be seen in FIGS. 6 and 7 that the upper end portion 36 of the main ladder support member 28 of the ladder 26 has an overall curved surface 60 with a recessed curved portion 68 that forms two stop surfaces at 70 and 72 at opposite ends of the recessed surface portion 68. Then the linking component 46 has a stop finger 74 that extends into the recessed area 68 so that it is able to engage each of the stop surfaces 70 and 72. In the position of FIG. 6 where the ladder support member 28 is extending downwardly with a moderate rearward slant, the stop member 74 comes into contact with the stop surface 72. Then in FIG. 7, it can be seen that when the ladder main support member 28 lifted upwardly to reach the horizontal position of FIG. 7, the stop member 74 now engages the stop surface 70, so that further upward travel of the main ladder support member 28 of the ladder 26 moves the linking component 46 along with it until it reaches the stowed position of FIG. 5.

In this first embodiment of this invention, the upwardly facing surface 20 of the platform 14 functions as stowage space for the ladder 26. In this embodiment the ladder connects at the rear end portion 18 of the platform which, in this particular boat, is the rear-most portion of the boat. However, in this context the terms of forward and rear do not necessarily coincide with the forward and rearward orientations of the boat. For example, it could be that the ladder is located at one of the side surfaces of the platform 14, or possibly at some forward location on the boat, depending upon the arrangement and design of the boat. Also, the stowage surface region 20 could, of course, be some other surface having a substantial horizontal alignment component that would be at another location on the boat.

Also, in the above description the stowage surface 20 is described as being horizontal, and it would have a substantial horizontal alignment component. However, it could be at some other surface on the boat which would have more of a slant relative to the longitudinal axis of the boat or relative to what would be considered a “level orientation” when the boat is floating at rest or a “substantial horizontal alignment component”.

Also, with regard to the placement of the pivot locations of the linking component 46, in this embodiment the rear pivot portion 49 is spaced at least a short distance rearwardly of the rear end edge surface 22 of the platform 14, so that it is able to position the ladder 26 in its downwardly extending operating position, to be adjacent to the rear edge surface 22 of the platform 14, but close enough to it so that it would not protrude any great distance beyond the rear edge surface being in its position adjacent to the rear of the platform 14.

The location of the forward pivot location 48 and the length of the linking component 96 determine the location of the ladder in its stowed position, so those two design parameters can be selected to locate the storage location of the ladder on the platform surface at various desired locations.

A second embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to FIGS. 8 through 15A-G.

Components of this second embodiment which are the same as, or fairly similar to, components of the first embodiment will be given like-numerical designations with an “a” suffix to distinguish these as components of the second embodiment. These numerical designations extend from 11 a through 36 a. Then in the description that follows, the components, features or other items which are newly added in this second embodiment will be identified by numerical designations beginning with the numerical “90” and continuing upwardly from 90, but without any letter suffix, such as “a”.

Reference is first made to FIGS. 8, 9 and 10, which illustrate the ladder assembly 11 a mounted to the platform 14 (the rear part of which is shown at 14 a). The upwardly facing surface 20 a of the platform 14 is indicated in FIG. 8 and also the rearwardly facing rear-edge portion 22 a of the platform 14 a.

The ladder 26 a is also shown, with the main support member 28 a, the telescoping connections 30 a, and the lower and upper end portions 34 a and 36 a. Also, it has its alignment axis 31 a extending the length of the ladder 26 a. This ladder 26 a is (or may be) the same as the ladder disclosed in the description of the first embodiment.

In the first embodiment there is an interconnecting section 40, and in this second embodiment there is an interconnecting section 90 which has some functions similar to those of the interconnecting section 40 of the first embodiment. However, as indicated above, there are some significant differences. Accordingly, in describing the second embodiment, the interconnecting section is designated 90.

It is believed that a clearer understanding of the second embodiment will be obtained by first discussing the components, structure and functions of the interconnecting section 90 after which there will be a description with other components and features of the second embodiment.

With reference first to FIGS. 11, 12 and 13, the interconnecting section 90 has a forward connecting portion 92, a rear connecting portion 94, and a linking component 96. This linking component 96 comprises a rear ladder connecting end portion 98, a forward ladder connecting end portion 99, and a central body portion 100.

The basic configuration of the linking component 96 is such that the central body portion 100 has a cylindrical configuration with an outer cylindrical surface 102. Both of the ladder connecting end portions 98 and 99 have a hemispherical configuration, with a hemispherical surface 103 facing outwardly (rearwardly for the rear portion, and forwardly for the forward portion) and they join with the central body 100 portion at their respective “hemispheric equator” juncture locations.

The forward and rear-end portions 99 and 98 of the linking component 96 each have central vertically aligned slots 108 and 109, respectively (see FIG. 13), opening in forward and rear directions, respectively. There is a forward linking component connecting member 110 (see FIG. 12) that is in the forward slot 108 and has a lower connecting end portion 112 which is anchored into the platform 14 a. The platform 14 a is provided with a mounting plate assembly 113 to anchor the connecting member 110 (see FIG. 13) to the platform 14 a. Since the components of the plate assembly 113 are quite evident from viewing FIG. 13, these will not be described in this text.

Then the upper edge portion of the connecting member 110 is formed in a semi-circular curve 114. This connecting member 110 has a laterally-extending-through opening at 115 which extends not only through the connecting member 114, but also in the adjacent side portions of the forward end portion of the linking component 96. There is a pivot pin or finger 116 that extends through that opening so that there is a rotatable connection between the stationary connecting member 110 and the linking component 96 which can thus rotate about the pivot location 116.

With reference to FIG. 12, the rear portion of the slot 110 terminates at an inner forwardly facing edge 120. The effect of this is that the linking component 96 can rotate in a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction through a 180° from the position in FIG. 12 to a position at FIG. 15G where the member 96 is facing forwardly.

Let us now turn our attention back to FIGS. 11, 12 13, 14A, 14B and also to FIG. 8 to discuss the connection to the ladder 26 to the interconnecting section 90. Earlier in this text, it was indicated that there is also a rear-slot 109 which is formed in the rear-end portion of the linking component 96. The rear-connecting portion 94 of the interconnecting section 90 is similar to the configuration of the forward connecting portion 92 in that it also has a slot 109, the hemispherical rear-end portion 104 which has the through opening 115 and also the pivot pin or finger 116 which enables there to be a pivot connection. The upper end of the main ladder section 30 a connects to a rear connecting member 121 which is the same as the forward connecting member 110 and pivotally connects to the rear ladder connecting portion 98, and it is anchored into the upper end portion of the uppermost member 30 a of the ladder 30 a.

However, there is a significant difference in the arrangement of the rear ladder connecting portion 98 of the linking component 96. With reference to FIG. 12, it will be noted that the rear slot 109 has an inner rearwardly facing slanting inner edge surface 122 shown in the broken line of FIG. 12 at 122. This slanted edge surface 122 serves a very important function of being a positioning surface to engage the connecting member 121.

In FIG. 14A the ladder 30 a is shown in its operating position where it is at an angle of 105° from horizontal that engages to the upper end of the ladder. As can be seen in looking at the connecting member 121, the side surfaces 123 of the connecting member 122 are flat. In the position of 14A the flat side surface 126 of the connecting member 110 abuts against the inner-edge surface 126 to position the ladder 30 a at a 75° slant, as indicated in FIG. 14A.

Now let us turn our attention to FIG. 14B where the ladder member 30 has been rotated through 180° up to the position shown in FIG. 14B. The ladder now extends from its pivot location upwardly with a forward slant that is at 75° with the horizontal. FIG. 14B is shown only to illustrate one aspect of the travel of the ladder 30 a in moving toward its end position.

To discuss now the operation of this second embodiment, in the overall method the ladder 30 is initially deployed in its operating position where it extends downwardly into the water at a moderate slant from the vertical (e.g., 15° rearwardly from the vertical). Then to stow the ladder, the ladder sections are telescoped into the compact position and are raised upwardly through a horizontal position and the ladder continues to be rotated until ladder and interconnecting section 90 are horizontally aligned on the platform surface. However, the interaction of the components is somewhat different, and this will be discussed with reference to FIGS. 15A through 15F.

The sequence is as follows:

-   -   i. In FIG. 15A, the ladder is in its fully extended position and         is extending downwardly into the water, with the linking         component 96 extending beyond the rear edge 22 a of the platform         14 a, and with the ladder in its downward and moderately slanted         position. The side surface 126 of the connecting member engaging         the positioning surface 122 to maintain the slant.     -   ii. In FIG. 15B, it is shown that the ladder sections have been         telescoped into one another and have been moved upwardly to be         horizontally aligned.     -   iii. In FIG. 15C, the ladder has been rotated a little more than         90° where it is substantially vertical and leaning forwardly so         that it has a moderate 15° slant from the vertical. This is         simply an intermediate position and is also shown in FIG. 14B.         It can be seen that a side surface of the connecting member 121         is in engagement with the edge portion inner edge positioning         surface 126.     -   iv. In FIG. 15D, the ladder 30 has been moved further forwardly         until it is near a horizontal position. It will be noted that         when this occurs, due to the downwardly motion, the linking         component 96 is rotated forwardly.     -   v. In FIG. 15E, by gravity the ladder has dropped downwardly to         the level of the support surface of the platform, but the         linking component 96 remains substantially vertical.     -   vi. In FIG. 15F, the ladder 30 has been pulled forwardly a short         distance so that it is moved forwardly and the linking component         96 rotates downwardly to a horizontal position where it is         resting on the surface of the platform.

While the present invention is illustrated by description of several embodiments and while the illustrative embodiments are described in detail, it is not the intention of the applicants to restrict or in any way limit the scope of the appended claims to such detail. Additional advantages and modifications within the scope of the appended claims will readily appear to those sufficed in the art. The invention in its broader aspects is therefore not limited to the specific details, representative apparatus and methods, and illustrative examples shown and described. Accordingly, departures may be made from such details without departing from the spirit or scope of applicants' general concept. 

1. A stowable ladder assembly adapted to be positioned at a ladder stowing region of a boat, said ladder stowing region having an upwardly facing stowing surface portion having a forward stowage surface portion, an intermediate stowing surface portion and a rear stowing surface portion, having a rearwardly facing rear edge portion, said ladder assembly comprising: a. a main ladder section having an alignment axis, an upper ladder portion with an upper ladder pivot connecting location, a lower ladder portion and an intermediate ladder portion, said ladder section having an operating position where the upper ladder pivot connecting location is positioned rearwardly of the rearwardly facing rear edge portion of the ladder stowing region and the lower portion is at a lower location; b. a platform pivot connecting section connected to the upwardly facing storage region and having a platform pivot connecting location which is located forwardly of said rear edge portion of the ladder stowing region at a stowage distance from said rear edge portion to said platform pivot connecting location; c. an interconnecting section comprising a linking component having a forward pivot linking connecting end portion connecting to said platform at said platform pivot connecting location and a rear pivot linking connecting end portion connecting to said upper ladder pivot connecting location; d. said ladder section, said platform pivot connecting section, and said interconnecting section being arranged in a manner that with the ladder section in its operating position, said linking component is positioned to be extending rearwardly from said platform pivot connecting location, and said rear pivot linking connecting end portion is positioned relative to the rear edge of the stowing surface portion so that the ladder section is able to extend downwardly in its operating position and the linking component and the ladder section are able to rotate from the operating position to a stowed position with the ladder section extending forwardly from the platform pivot connection location; e. said ladder section and said interconnecting section being arranged with a rotation limit mechanism in a manner that with the ladder section in its downwardly extending operating position with said linking component extending rearwardly from said platform pivot connecting location over said stowing surface portion, said ladder section could be rotated upwardly from its downwardly extending operating position toward its stowed position and the ladder section is prevented from rotating forwardly from its operating position. 